The Chicago Bears‘ choice to trade three-year starting quarterback Justin Fields in favor of an inexperienced rookie evoked strong reactions around the NFL, including from rival Detroit Lions‘ head coach Dan Campbell.
Reporters asked Campbell on Tuesday, March 26 for his thoughts on Fields’ departure from Chicago to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who play in the AFC North Division.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s nice to have Fields out of that division,” Campbell said, according to Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit.
Campbell offered a greater depth of insight into his opinion on Fields during a December 2023 interview.
“He’s one of these rare, dangerous players,” Campbell said on December 8, according to Bleacher Report. “And I’ll tell you what he’s done a really good job of from last year to this year is if it’s a pass and he starts to move, he’s still moving with eyes down the field much more than I felt like he had previously. And that’s extremely dangerous because even in Minnesota, he had two or three receivers wide open after he had kind of run, found a way through, broke contain and all of a sudden he gets an explosive pass off of it.”
Justin Fields Showed Promise, Not Enough for Bears to Keep Him
GettyFormer Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
Fields’ explosiveness and creativity now resides in the Steelers’ QB room for the low cost of a conditional sixth-round pick, which will become a fourth-rounder if he takes 51% of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps in 2024. To do that, Fields will need to out-duel Russell Wilson during training camp, or take over for the former Super Bowl champion because of poor play and/or injury during the season.
Fields certainly has a chance to bring the Bears the best possible return on the trade, as he displayed flashes of brilliance during his time in Chicago. He set the second all-time highest single-season rushing mark from the position in 2022, tallying 1,143 yards and 8 TDs on the ground across 15 games played. He also led all NFL players with 7.1 rushing yards per attempt that season, according to Pro Football Reference.
His performance under center in 2022 earned Fields a place in the top 10 of league MVP voting (he finished ninth overall) and set him up as a dark horse candidate to win the award heading into the 2023 campaign. However, that projection was based on the assumption that Fields would develop significantly as a passer, which didn’t happen — or at least not to the degree it needed to happen for his stock to remain at its peak.
Fields finished last season with career highs in passing attempts (370), completions (227), completion percentage (61.4%) and passing yards (2,562). He also threw a career low of 9 INTs across 13 games and tallied 16 passing TDs — one shy of his career-best in that category (17 TDs in 2022).
Bears Likely to Place Faith in Caleb Williams as Franchise QB
GettyQuarterback Caleb Williams, formerly of the USC Trojans.
Meanwhile, Chicago is hoping for an upgrade in its QB room via the first overall pick in the NFL draft. That hope will most likely rest with Caleb Williams, previously part of the USC Trojans.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus recently went to Williams’ pro day in Southern California and had a one-on-one meeting with the quarterback in the days after. His remarks about Williams were very positive.
“It was great,” Eberflus said, according to Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “The most important thing is that you can see the arm talent on the film and you can also see it in person. That was the main thing. What I was happy to see was the way he interacted with the other players. You can see that, and we spoke to every person on that team. … We had conversations with those guys at the dinner, and you can definitely see that those players adore him and respect him and appreciate what he’s contributed to that program.”
